сряда, 24 август 2016 г.

Balkan Insight: Bulgaria Pays the Price for Friendship with Turkey

Bulgaria
complied with demands for extraditions of opponents of the Turkish government,
hoping to prevent Ankara unleashing a new refugee influx, but Sofia is risking
its relationships with Western allies, experts warn.

By Mariya Cheresheva

Bulgarian
leaders have been showing "insecurity and fear" in their recent dealings
with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which - even if justified, is
"a bad sign for the state politics", Ilian Vassilev, а Bulgarian diplomat and
former ambassador to Moscow, told BIRN.

Vassilev
said that after the failed coup in Turkey and the subsequent government
crackdown on its alleged adversaries, Bulgaria is understandably acting very cautiously
towards its southern neighbor.

"It
is easier to snarl at Erdogan from Vienna, Berlin or Budapest, when you know
that there are many buffer countries between you and Turkey," he said. "For
Sofia, it is different."

Bulgarian
Prime Minister Boyko Borissov is preparing to meet Erdogan in Istanbul on
Friday to discuss joint energy projects and other bilateral issues.

After
the latest developments in Turkey as well as the worsening relations between
Erdogan’s regime and the EU and the US, Bulgaria has found itself in a difficult
and vulnerable position.

On
one hand, the Bulgarian government has shown its commitment to maintain warm
relations with Turkey, fearing the risk of Ankara flooding the country with
refugees. On the other, Bulgaria - as an EU and NATO member country - needs to remain
in line with its Western allies.

"We
are facing a huge crisis between Turkey and the EU... the whole of Europe is
surrounded by fences," Borissov told NOVA TV on August 12.

Borissov
warned that Erdogan had threatened to “flood Europe with refugees”, which actually
meant flooding Bulgaria with refugees.

He
was referring to a statement in May by Burhan Kuzu, a former adviser to Erdogan
and a senior member of the Turkish ruling party AKP, who said on Twitter that
if the European parliament takes “the wrong decision” about lifting visa
requirements for Turkish citizens, Ankara will “send the refugees”.

In
February meanwhile, the Greek news website euro2day published a copy of minutes
of a meeting between the Turkish president and EU leaders during which Erdogan also
allegedly threatened to flood Europe with migrants.

Borissov
admitted that he was "extremely worried" about the possibility and
explained that his aim was "to act so that Turkey treats Bulgaria
differently from any other country in Europe".

He
also pledged to keep "the best possible relations with Turkey" - but Bulgaria
has already had to pay a price for this.

The cost of friendship

On
August 10, the Bulgarian authorities handed over to Turkey a man called Abdullah
Buyuk, a supporter of Fethullah Gulen, the US-based Islamic cleric who
Ankara accuses of being responsible for the failed coup.

Buyuk
had sought political protection from Bulgaria in 2015 after being charged with
terrorism over his relations with Gulen's Islamic movement.

Buyuk's
extradition, officially because of his lack of valid documents, provoked
outrage in Bulgaria, as it took place the despite the fact that two courts -
the Sofia City Court and the Sofia Court of Appeal - had refused to send him to
Turkey because the argued that a fair trial was not guaranteed.

The
extradition was carried out covertly, without the police even notifying the
Ombudsman and relevant non-governmental organizations, as stipulated by Bulgaria’s
Law on Foreigners.

It
drew public attention in Bulgaria only after it was broadly covered by the
Turkish media.

The
case was largely condemned by legal experts, who have described it as contrary
to the rule of law and an example of Bulgaria submitting to the demands of its powerful
neighbour.

Buyuk’s
expulsion contradicts the constitution as well as Bulgarian and international
law, Bulgaria’s National Ombudsman Maya Manolova protested.

Even
Borissov admitted that the extradition of the 43-year-old owner of a software
business was "on the edge of the law", but at the same time noted
that Bulgaria has returned 25,000 illegal migrants to Turkey since the
beginning of the year.

In
Turkey,the deportation of Buyuk, who Ankara accuses of being Gulen’s
financier, has been welcomed warmly.

A
few days afterwards, on August 14, Turkish media
reported that two other Turkish citizens, alleged members of the Kurdistan
Workers Party, the PKK, which has been fighting the Turkish state for the right
to self-determination, were handed over to Turkey by the Bulgarian police.

President
Erdogan named Bulgaria as a possible example for the US, which has refused
Turkey’s extradition request for Fethullah Gulen, over a lack of solid evidence
that the exiled cleric’s organization, which Ankara calls the Gulenist Terror Organisation, or FETO, was behind the coup
attempt on July 15.

"Sooner
or later America will have to decide. Either theterrorist FETO or the
democratic state of Turkey. It will have to make a choice," Erdogan told a
rally in Ankara on August 10.

These
extraditions have apparently achieved the desired effect in Turkey.

Two
days afterwards, the Turkish government's press service announced that Prime
Minister Binali Yaldirim has proposed a bilateral agreement on migration to his
Bulgarian counterpart Borissov.

According
to the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency, BTA, Yildarim said that the implementation
of the EU-Turkey deal on migrants and visa liberalisation was Ankara’s top
priority.

"But
before such a stage is reached, I propose that our two countries, which have a
common border, start a mechanism for bilateral cooperation on this question,"
the BTA quoted Yildarim as saying.

He
also said that the extradition of Buyuk was a "good example" for
Turkey's "friends and partners".

Bulgaria’s
government has confirmed that Borissov has spoken to Yildirim, but refused to
reveal the details of their telephone conversation.

Relations
between the two neighboring countries will be tested again on Friday, when Borissov
meets Erdogan. The two leaders will discuss common energy projects, especially
in the light of the recent improvement in relations between Turkey and Russia.

Experts
expect that the migration deal between the EU and Turkey, which currently appears
to be stalled if not seriously threatened, will also be among the topics of conversation.

Right
after his visit to Turkey, Borissov is meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel
in Berlin on Saturday together with the premiers of seven other countries –
Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria – to
discuss Europe’s refugee crisis.

Bulgaria’s balancing act

Unlike
Turkish officials, many Bulgarian experts and analysts have been more cautious
about Bulgaria’s compliant gestures towards Turkey.

Tayfur
Hussein, a deputy editor-in-chief of the Bulgarian edition of the Zaman newspaper, which is linked to the
Gulen movement, warned that the Buyuk case is also been used as an instrument
for internal political propaganda by the Turkish government.

"Erdogan
personally offered up Bulgaria as an example of an obedient neighbour and his
media elaborated on the thesis that [Bulgaria] is ready to do anything it is
asked for," Hussein said.

Dimitar
Bechev, director of the Sofia-based Institute for European Policies, also said
that Bulgaria cannot afford to criticise Turkey because “as a neighbour it has
an interest in smooth relations”.

But
both Bechev and Vassilev agree that Bulgaria’s policy of making compromises
with the Turkish regime does not provide any effective guarantees against
Borissov’s biggest fear - that Erdogan will break the deal with the EU,
allowing a massive influx of refugees into Europe.

"Bulgaria
risks being considered as a weak part of the EU and NATO – both by its allies
and by its opponents. Neighbourly relations are an asset, but connections with
the EU and NATO are a fundamental priority," Vassilev said.

He
did not dismiss the possibility that after the controversial extradition of
Buyuk, Bulgaria would continue to do what Turkey wants.

But
at the same time he argued that the EU and NATO need to show more solidarity
and to demonstrate that they will back a Europe-wide solution to Bulgaria and
Greece’s issues with Turkey over the refugee and migrant crisis.

"Otherwise
Borissov or some other [official] will seek individual solutions and direct
negotiations [with Turkey], and no one could blame him for that," Vassilev
said.